Author Topic: Most Versatile Tube Amp (Read 7715 times)

downrodeo · « **Reply #15 on:** August 23, 2006, 05:44:40 PM »

About Rack units...Do they have to be enclosed in a rack? Is it a good idea to have them in one? And are they kind of a pain to bring to gigs for some reason, because there aren't a lot of players that have rackmount pre- and power-amps out there. Ya know? The thing about them is that I've always wondered if they can produce the same qualtiy sounds as a well built, full-size head. Thanks, again guys...

dave_mc · « **Reply #16 on:** August 23, 2006, 06:27:53 PM »

Quote from: Sekhmet

"The Hughes and Kettner Triamp would be close."

I was going to sudgest that to, but as with the reply the only thing that let the amp down was its hi gain tone :-(

Shame because the clean channel was just so loverly ;-)

aye, i mean everything up to channel 4 was really nice (though I thought the marshall-y channels had a little too much gain- or at least, didn't have a wide enough gain sweep)- but the high gain channels were pretty poor. and on a £2000-odd amp, that claims to do everything, that's just not acceptable, IMO.

Searcher · « **Reply #17 on:** August 23, 2006, 06:35:38 PM »

Quote from: downrodeo

About Rack units...Do they have to be enclosed in a rack? Is it a good idea to have them in one? And are they kind of a pain to bring to gigs for some reason, because there aren't a lot of players that have rackmount pre- and power-amps out there. Ya know? The thing about them is that I've always wondered if they can produce the same qualtiy sounds as a well built, full-size head. Thanks, again guys...

You can balance your rack gear on top of your speakers if you want to, but it's neater and has less chance of falling off in a rack mount thingy.

I haven't played much rack gear, but the stuff I've heard sounds every bit as good as non-rack amplification. However, if you're the sort of person who likes to plug straight into a class A amp, then racks would probably not be for you.

FELINEGUITARS · « **Reply #18 on:** August 23, 2006, 08:02:06 PM »

A Boogie Roadking probably comes close
Or A mesa Triaxis preamp with a switchable mode power amp into a choice of cabinets.
Chosing carefully would allow everything from A Fender Juior to a ful recto stack with some Fender clean Twin sounds etc in between

The truth is that there is no one amp or any one guitar that lets you do it all

Somehow you want a different guitar with Apaches in as one with Warpigs in too - to some extent it's horses for courses.

There are some setups that give you enough range to cover most things and get by but some kit is made to suit a certain purpose and be untouched in that department.

A Ferrari is a great sports car - but not ideal for taking a family of 4 to Tesco to do the weekly shopping.....

Word Bearer · « **Reply #19 on:** August 23, 2006, 09:49:30 PM »

Well if you wanted to get into rack gear then the Hughes & Kettner Access is probably one of the most versatile Preamps I've tried.

Haven't really compared it though with much of the really high end Bogners, Soldano's, Engl's etc but it certainly has an awesome sound and like I said, hugely versatile with 3 completely different channels.

dave_mc · « **Reply #20 on:** August 23, 2006, 10:33:58 PM »

Quote from: FELINEGUITARS

A Boogie Roadking probably comes close
Or A mesa Triaxis preamp with a switchable mode power amp into a choice of cabinets.
Chosing carefully would allow everything from A Fender Juior to a ful recto stack with some Fender clean Twin sounds etc in between

The truth is that there is no one amp or any one guitar that lets you do it all

Somehow you want a different guitar with Apaches in as one with Warpigs in too - to some extent it's horses for courses.

There are some setups that give you enough range to cover most things and get by but some kit is made to suit a certain purpose and be untouched in that department.

A Ferrari is a great sports car - but not ideal for taking a family of 4 to Tesco to do the weekly shopping.....

exactly- even the amps that do it all, even the mega dear ones, still leave something to be desired compared to the amps aimed only at the vintage tones (mainly because the amps aimed at doing it all are mainly modern high gain amps at heart)...

:drink:

JJretroTONEGOD · « **Reply #21 on:** August 31, 2006, 07:47:51 PM »

no one has even mentioned Orange, in fact, that's what Jimmy page used on 'since I've been lovin you' by Led Zep. There's an orange head with three channels.

no one has mentioned Soldano, they do some outstanding head amps! one of the best, check out their three channel amps.

Mesa Boogie Dual rectifier, has 3 channels and it can do what you described but not fully.

If I was you I'd contact Custom Audio amplifiers, made by John Shur, as they're that good I recon it's actually possible with one to get the tone youre after. It certanly isn't impossible, but you're looking at £3,500 + just for the head. To me Custom Audio are the best of the best, I mean Warren Cuccurullo used them in the 90s! to give you an idea of the tone of a Custom Audio amp, just listen to the album 'Thanks to Frank' from the 90s. Now that's what I call a real $%&#ing amp! he used the CA100 head, which is now a classic.

downrodeo · « **Reply #22 on:** August 31, 2006, 08:22:39 PM »

Custom Audio, eh? Never seen or heard one...but if what you say is true...sounds good enough to me! I checked their website and I didn't see anything about the CA-100...did you mean the OD-100 all-tube series that they make?